Only 84 percent of wheat procurement target achieved

The government agencies, including Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Services Corporation (Passco), and provincial food departments, after passing the deadline for wheat procurement drive, have managed to achieve only 84 percent of the wheat procurement target.
According to official data available with Business Recorder, all public sector departments so far have purchased nearly 5.5 million tons of wheat across the country.
The data shows that the wheat procurement drive has been much slower in KP where so far only 30 percent of the wheat target has been procured against the set target of 0.4 million tons, while Balochistan government agencies purchased over 81,000 tons of wheat, which is 16 percent higher than the set target of 70,000 tons.
Sindh Food Department has achieved wheat procurement target of 1.3 million tons, while the Punjab Food Department has purchased 3.064 million tons of wheat, which is 87.6 percent of the set target of 3.5 million ton for the province.
Passco has procured 0.973 million ton of wheat against set target of 1.3 million tons, which is 74 percent of the set target.
The government had set wheat procurement target for the year at 6.57 million tons, out of which 3.5 million tons had to be purchased by Punjab Food Department, 1.3 million tons by Sindh Food Department, 1.3 million tons by Passco, 0.4 million tons by KP and 70,000 tons by Balochistan.
The government had set May 31 deadline for completion of wheat procurement process across the country, but so far only 5.5 million tons of wheat has been lifted, which is 84.4 percent of the set target.
Sources in the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (Minfal) told Business Recorder that this year private sector had also played an important role in purchasing wheat.
They said that the private sector has purchased about 3 million tons of wheat. However, they said, the private sector has not provided the farmers with officially fixed wheat support price of Rs 950 per 40 kg but paid around Rs 850 per 40 kg, resulting in a loss to farmers of over Rs 7.5 billion.
Punjab Food Department has reportedly purchased 3.064 million tons of wheat so far from growers at a cost of Rs 72.77 billion, while it is being estimated that for the procurement of the remaining targeted 3.5 million tons an additional amount of Rs 12 billion would be required.
Farmers across Punjab have criticised the provincial government for slow procurement process, which has caused billions of rupees of losses to the farmers.
Tariq Mehmood, President of Pakistan Kisan Ithad, Punjab chapter, said that due to negligence of the provincial food department middlemen had taken full advantage of the situation and the farmers were forced to sell their commodity at throwaway price. He said that majority of the farmers in Punjab sold their commodity at prices ranging from Rs 800-850 per 40 kg.